KY's 18 drop out age policy to be implemented statewide

A bill aimed at raising the high school dropout age in Kentucky is seeing a fast response from districts across the Commonwealth. So far, 54 of the 174 school districts have already voted to raise theFull Story >

A bill aimed at raising the high school dropout age in Kentucky is seeing a fast response from districts across the Commonwealth. So far, 54 of the 174 school districts have already voted to raise the dropout age from 16 to 18 starting with the 2015-16 school year. Full Story >

FRANKFORT, KY (FOX19) -

Kentucky's policy to raise the drop out age to 18 will now be implemented statewide.

Just
two weeks after they could vote to raise the compulsory attendance age from 16
to 18, 96 school districts have adopted the policy and more are in the process
of approving it.

"After
five years of hard work by Commissioner Holliday, the First Lady and others to
implement raising the compulsory graduation age to 18, I am overwhelmed by the
support our school boards have shown by racing to adopt this policy," said Gov.
Beshear. "We know that keeping our students in school will not only offer
them a better future, but will ensure that Kentucky has a better-trained,
better-prepared workforce that will benefit the state for decades to
come. Implementing this important policy shows that Kentucky puts a high
value on education by putting faith in our students."

Senate
Bill 97 (SB 97), known as the "Graduate Kentucky" bill, passed earlier this
year and phases in an increase in the compulsory school attendance age from 16
to 18, amending the school attendance law created in 1934.

Students
who graduate from an accredited or an approved four-year high school before
they turn 18 are exempt from the new policy.

SB
97 made adoption voluntary until 55 percent—or 96—of the state's school
districts adopt the policy. Since that threshold has been reached, the
remainder of Kentucky's 173 districts must now adopt and implement a compulsory
attendance age of 18 no later than the 2017-18 school year.

Planning
grants of $10,000 are being provided through the Kentucky Department of
Education to the first 96 school districts that joined the effort to reach the
55 percent threshold. The funds are designed to be used to plan for full
implementation of the policy in the 2015-16 school year.

Schools that have adopted the policy already include Bellevue Independent, Bracken County, Covington Independent, Dayton Independent, Erlanger-Elsmere Independent, Kenton County, Mason County and Pendleton County.

(AP Photo/Jennifer Kay). Six crosses are placed at a makeshift memorial on the Florida International University campus in Miami on Saturday, March 17, 2018, near the scene of a pedestrian bridge collapse that killed at least six people on March 15.

A matter of seconds between those who would live and those who would die as Florida pedestrian bridge topples down highway bustling with passing vehicles.

A deputy with the Boone County Sheriff's Office fired his service weapon four times at a fleeing suspect at a gas station on Verona-Mudlick Road in Verona early Monday, a sheriff's spokesman says. (FOX19 NOW/Robert Guaderrama)

A manhunt is underway this morning after a Boone County deputy fired on a suspect in a vehicle who had just fought with two deputies and was driving across the parking lot of a Verona gas station, according to the Boone County Sheriff's Office.

A manhunt is underway this morning after a Boone County deputy fired on a suspect in a vehicle who had just fought with two deputies and was driving across the parking lot of a Verona gas station, according to the Boone County Sheriff's Office.